In his own time
by naybaybay
Summary: Kate gets a call from Esposito, with word of Rick's hospitalization after his little excursion with Slaughter. Naturally, his partner goes to his side, ready to be undemanding, ready, for now to simply... be.


Hi everyone, so I hadn't really a clue of how this little chap would go, until it was over. haha! So, it's possibly a little bit scrambled, but this insanity of waiting for all the angst to come to a head, is just, well, driving me insane! So I had to write something...anything to pass the time, "until that miracle occurs"... (totally plagiarized, I know... sorry) :-)

Disclaimer: Pfft, yeah right. If I owned the show, this story would not be anything CLOSE to reality.

...

The incessant ringing of Kate's phone ceased when she grabbed it off her kitchen counter, as she was heading out to the latest of her crime scenes.

"Beckett", she answered in her usual stoic way.

"Yo Beckett, it's Esposito. You heard from Castle?" Her team mate greeted her.

Beckett sighed inwardly _No, she hadn't heard from Castle. In two days. That's when he'd taken off with that cop with a liking for 70's cop movies, and the roguish, rough-as-guts style of police-work they often portrayed. _

"No, not in a while Espo. Why?"

"He's in the hospital. He didn't want me to tell you, but I thought his partner should know."

Kate froze. _WHAT? _she screamed inside.

"Wh-what the hell happened? It was that stupid idiot Slaughter, wasn't it? I'll kill h-"

"-Ah, we both know that would just result in a whole damn lot of paper work... not to mention jail time", Esposito interrupted her passionate raving.

Kate closed her eyes tightly. "I-I've gotta go to a crime scene, I was just about to call you with directions."

"Yeah, you mean, the central park DB... Already here boss, I'll be running point, it's all cleared", Espo replied to her smoothly.

Kate squinted. "Gates?"

"Seems the Iron is being melted. The old cap has grown a heart, I mean, she wasn't exactly calling up to order flowers for the guy, but the dismissive wave of her hand in reply to me asking to relieve you this morning, was proof enough that the cap... is slipping." Espo finished dramatically and Kate shook her head.

"Which hospital?"

"Mount Si, ward 23."

Kate nodded, although Esposito could not see it. "Alright. Thanks Espo."

"Hey Kate?"

Kate stilled at the gentle tone of her workmates' voice. "Yeah?"

A slight hesitation greeted her ears. "I'm sorry you guys are going through a thing."

Kate inhaled slowly before replying. "Yeah, me too."

The call ended there.

...

Kate arrived at Mount Sinai and waltzed confidently through the doors.

Approaching ward 23, she saw a man with light blondish curls and a face covered with a slightly-more-than five o'clock shadow. "Slaughter!" She yelled, stepping up to him with purpose.

"Beckett. I asked Ricky if he wanted to see you... he said no. What are you doing here?" The man implored without a hint of tact.

"_Ricky_ is my partner, Slaughter. MINE. Unlike you, I don't use my partner as bait, throwing him into the fray, just because I'd rather not get my hands dirty."

Ethan narrowed his eyes. "Um, I think you'll find that it was him who wanted the experience of taking down a suspect all on his own. Just ask him."

Kate stepped closer into his personal space. "You toss a frisbee off a cliff and watch as the dog runs to catch it, unaware of the danger he's in. "Castle's level of enthusiasm for solving crimes is not a game, you can't move him around like a pawn, his enthusiasm is the very thing that makes it necessary for someone to step in sometimes and put a leash on him."

Ethan chuckled lightly. "Are you really referring to Castle as a dog?"

Kate swallowed, her impatience growing. "What happened Slaughter? I want details. I'll be writing up the incident report, save you the trouble, I know you never do those anyway", she gave him a glare.

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Alright Beckett, if you really want to know. It's really quite unremarkable, just a typical takedown of a couple of crooks downtown."

Kate's glare did not diminish, which told him, she didn't care how boring or unremarkable the story... she wanted to hear it. _Had_ to hear it.

Ethan sighed. "Martin Kitt, you know the name right?"

Kate's shoulders dropped. "Martin Kitt, the gangster?"

Ethan nodded once. "Yeah, he's changed a lot since his Jolene Warring days. You remember that case?"

Kate huffed, wishing he would get to the god-damned point already. "Before my time, but I heard stuff."

"Yeah, pretty girl. Didn't stand much of a chance against his .22 though. Well, Kitt's changed a lot since back in the day, he's weathered, you can tell the past has finally caught up on him. Old mule's got himself a bionic hip and a head full o' grey hairs, totally out of shape, I could see. Easy takedown...So I set Castle on him while I dealt to his new wingman, Cotter... droopy guy, didn't even flinch when I-"

"You put Castle in front of a notorious gangster?" Kate was fuming.

Ethan shrugged.

Kate almost laughed at the absurdity of it. "Was he even wearing his vest?"

Ethan's brow furrowed. "Ricky has a vest?"

"Yeah it's got... "writer" written on it", Kate said in a voice softer than she'd used since her arrival at the hospital.

"Huh", Ethan seemed more interested in that than he had been in Castle's well-being.

Kate looked directly in the other detective's eyes. "You better hope he has nothing more than a bruise, Slaughter, because if he does, I'll have you know, I have the commissioner's number on speed-dial."

Slaughter pursed his lips, then puffed a breath of air through them. "Well, actually..."

Kate scowled at him and spoke in a dangerously low voice. "Get out of here before I let you know what going out in sympathy feels like."

Slaughter raised his hands and moved cautiously around the female detective, making his swift escape.

Kate raised a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes again. He wasn't in triage, or surgery, or (god forbid) the morgue. He was in a general ward, so whatever it was couldn't be too bad... surely. Though the knowledge that he'd been admitted caused Kate intrigue, and no small amount of concern.

She hesitated before knocking on the door to his room.

"Uh, um, come in", Rick's voice sounded muffled through the door.

Kate entered tentatively and awaited nervously for his response to her presence.

"Ka-Beckett. What are you doing here?" His right cheek was scratched and bloody and the right side of his bare torso was covered with a long sheet of gauze. The x-ray to the side of his bed showed two broken ribs when Kate took a quick glance at it, she gasped.

"God Castle, what in the hell were you thinking?" She sighed heavily, ignoring his earlier question.

"I was having a good time as a matter of fact. Thanks to me, a wanted fugitive is now in custody, and if a smack in the face and a couple of cracked ribs is what I get for it, then I'm satisfied with that. Surely you know how good that feeling is, what a rush you get. And hey, guess what, Ethan actually lets me go in first", Rick's voice grew considerably louder by the end of his little speech.

"To protect his own ass!" Kate yelled angrily.

"And how does that differ from you?" Rick shot back at her, his eyes squinted in a glare.

"What?" Beckett took a step back, the expression she wore on her face was one of deep hurt, shock and sadness. "Everything I do on the job, I do to protect you."

Rick let out a laugh that he instantly regretted as pain shot through his right side. "Oh is that what you've been doing, protecting me. Protecting me, Beckett?"

When Kate stared at him with such confusion and small threats of tears formed in her eyes, Rick turned with difficulty, to his left side, not giving a damn about the pulling of the stitches. "Please, just leave."

"No", came her croaky response.

He turned back, wincing both at his discomfort and at her stubbornness. "No?"

"No", she confirmed.

Rick looked on with anger and discomfort, and just a little bit of admiration as she crossed what remained of the room and came to stand beside his hospital bed.

She sighed deeply and with what seemed like a very concentrated amount of effort, she brought her eyes to meet with his. The tears were teetering on her lashes now, and instantly his demeanor softened a fraction.

She swallowed before parting her lips to speak. "I miss my partner. I want him back." Her eyes bore into his. "I need you, Castle."

Rick blinked once and then twice. "Beckett, you-"

"I've done something wrong. Something to hurt you. I wish I knew what it was. I wish I could fix it... I realize it's something that only I _can _ you don't want to tell me what it is, i-if you can't tell me, then I will just have to figure it out myself, because-" she paused for a moment and Rick watched her imploringly. "Because I don't remember what my life was like before you came along, and I don't want to have to go back down that path."

Rick raised his eyebrows. How coincidental.

Kate took his hand in her own. "So I have to figure it out. To fix this, to fix...us."

Rick closed his eyes. "I can't promise you that even when you do figure it out, I'll be able to forgive you for it", he said earnestly.

Kate nodded. "I understand that. Your feelings aren't a switch you can just turn off and on."

Rick's neck stiffened as his partner's words mirrored closely, those of his mother.

She offered him the smallest of smiles, the kind that featured more in her eyes than on her mouth. "You don't need to tell me why you made the decision to leave, but if you would consider coming back... we do make a pretty good team, you know."

Rick _almost_ returned her smile. He gave her a barely distinctive nod. "I'll be back. When they let me out of here, I'll come back to homicide."

Kate's smile widened. "Maybe you could also tell me why you decided to follow Detective Slaughter, specifically."

"Are you kidding? Have you seen his car? It's totally awe-", he gulped, remembering Detective Slaughter's warning about using the word that he considered no who was old enough to buy alcohol should ever use. "It was very exhilarating", he finished, trying for something slightly more distinguished.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Boys and their toys, more specifically... their cars. No wonder you like him."

Rick looked off wistfully.

Kate cleared her throat. "You know, if you wanted an exhilarating ride, you should've just asked me."

Rick's eyes very nearly popped out of their sockets. "Wh-what?"

"My bike. You'd love it. We could take a trip to the coast someday soon.", Kate said, making his heart slow a little, but certainly not back to its normal rate. "When you're better of course."

Rick gave her a short nod. "Yeah, well, it sounds like fun, but I don't think you'd be up for doing anything quite as bad-ass as Slaughter in his car." Castle spoke as animatedly as his injury would allow. "Up on two wheels, donuts, speeds of up to one-eighty... _that guy _can drive."

Kate's lips twitched upward as she lightly played with the soft fingers of his hand she was still holding. "Actually it sounds kinda... awesome."

Rick's eyes met hers, they were sparkling with interest, and perhaps...

His reticent smile turned into a full-fledged grin, and Beckett may have imagined it, but she was pretty sure his fingers had begun to stroke softly in response to hers.

And just like that, the switch was flicked back to ON.


End file.
